The National Affairs Desk of Glorious Noise

While watching some of the endless cable news coverage of the attacks on Israel and Lebanon last night, I happened to catch the on-the-microphone performance of President Bush at the G8 Summit in St. Petersburg in a tête-à-tête with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, when the president said, "What they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over." A big deal that the president of the United States says "shit"? No, not at all. Of course, when you think about how he was talking to a man whose accent is such that he sounds as though he's on sabbatical from Oxford, and if you'd heard the way. . .that. . .some. . .of. . .the. . .words. . .in the president's remark. . .were. . .verbally. . .strung. . .out and others weren't—well, let's just say the verbal representation isn't all we'd like it to be. While some people might let this all pass as being "folksy," I don't know how many of us would like folks like that running a high school student council. Of course, at student council meetings the subjects are generally about such things as dress codes, and that gang of eight is busy making proclamations—public ones, that is—which have the potential to have some significant economic effects on the entire world, not just the 12th-grade class. I'll bet the son of a bitch that left the mike open is sorry.